The worst advice ever is to use less quality fabric, batting, and thread to practice machine quilting.

I generally disregard any advice that includes 'you should' or 'you must' - unless it is accompanied by an explanation of why I should or I must.

I wash fabric for two reasons - the sizing in fabric irritates me, so it has to be washed out. The other reason is that I buy the fabric from stores, which are usually clean and neat, but who knows about the store next door or warehouse it came from? I wash fabric to ensure that no pests survive to propagate in my home.

When I first started patchwork 6 years ago I would get myself tied up in knots about the "right" and "wrong" way to do things. Some things worked for me and some didn't.

It was at that point a dear friend gave me the best piece of advice I've heard in the patchwork world - it doesn't really matter how you do something as long as you are consistent through the whole quilt and you and the galloping horse are happy with it. And if the galloping horse isn't happy there's always the 3 yard rule!

I've sewed by that piece of philosophy ever since and have been in few knots.

I'm not sure if this qualifies as worst advice or even bad advice but I've never heard this before. I was looking at one of my first quilt how to books (I think it is Better Homes and Gardens even) and it instructs you to press from the back (not locking in the seam, or pressing the seam open, but the pressing the seam to one side). I have tried this the past 2 days on little 4 patch and 9 patches I am working on and it seems to be working okay. In the next few days I am going to see if this helps with stretching the fabric--especially when doing little strips like one inch strip sets. Bad advice, I don't know yet???

worst advice---OH! don't bother to wash before you cut! Its just a waste of time and effort! First quilt, Orange ran (this was before color catchers), green print shrank more than any of the other colors. Now all new fabric in the house stops at the washer before it hits the sewing area.

I never wash fabric first either. Been making quilts since the mid 70's and never had a problem, with shrinking too much or bleeding!!

And speaking of "right" and "wrong" : Those solids with little selveges -- I get the right side and the wrong side mixed up after cutting. Then I stress over which side to use. In the final analysis, when all is pieced, it's virtually impossible to tell which pieces were put in "right" and which pieces were put in "wrong."

Machine quilted is not a real quilt. Huh??

As a new quilter I'd forgotten how to join the two ends of the binding strip. A teacher took over and did a weird thing where she sewed a piece down first and then joined it once it had been sewn all the way round by tucking bits in.
Only problem - the bulky join was at the top of the (baby) quilt and visible to all.

The worst advice I ever got was "don't wash your fabric first, it's a waste of time". This was at the very beginning of my quilting life and it didn't take long to build a stash and that's when I started getting headaches and feeling lethargic. Turns out I have a sensitivity to whatever chemical they put into fabric to keep it fresh from manufacturer to your home. (In talking with my friends at my guild, it turns out this is a common reaction to these chemicals, it jut turns out that many weren't relating it back to their unwashed fabric.) I took every single piece of fabric and began washing it all. After a few weeks, all my symptoms disappeared and I felt much, much better. Now, every single piece of fabric that comes into my home gets prewashed. :)